A few years ago, Kevin Smith, the senior pastor at New City Fellowship, was in talks with Chattanooga Christian School about hosting an elementary microschool on the grounds of his Glenwood church. The school would mix children who could afford a private Christian education with those who could not.
“Basically in this city, that means blood poor Black kids, side by side with middle class and upper middle class white kids, and now Latino kids,” Smith said in a phone interview.
He said the vision excited him, but a miscommunication foiled the initial plan.
“Broke my heart,” Smith said in a phone interview. “It was crazy. Next thing I know, I saw a newspaper article saying they were starting a microschool at Olivet. I was dumbfounded.”